Alcatel neopost UK User manual

Brand: Alcatel

Model: neopost UK

Type: User manual

Alcatel-Lucent makes Neopost UK’s IT infrastructure more efﬁcient, more secure and

less expensive to run

NEOPOST UK SYNCHRONIZES

KEY IT DIRECTORIES – AND CUTS COSTS

Case study • Telecommunications

Alcatel-Lucent Services for Enterprise’s skills and

expertise are used to set up automatic, real-time

synchronization of Neopost UK’s two key IT directories.

Case study • Telecommunications

first class mail

Neopost is a leading player in the mailroom equipment market.

The group offers the most advanced solutions for mailing systems,

folders, inserters and addressing, as well as traceability for letters

and parcels. The range of its services is broad, and includes

consulting, maintenance, financing solutions and online services.

So successful is Neopost in the provision of these products and

services that it is Europe’s biggest mailroom equipment supplier,

and number two in the global market. In 2006, it turned over

nearly a billion Euros, had seven offices in the UK alone, and

worldwide employed some 4,900 people in 14 countries.

Posting times

Every company with such a sizable workforce faces the challenge

of keeping track of its people. Every time an employee is

recruited, leaves, moves desk, transfers to a new site, or changes

responsibility, it is likely to require an update of the organization’s

two key ICT (information and communications technology)

directories: the one that governs computer systems and the one

that enables the telephony infrastructure to route calls correctly.

Inevitably, it is time consuming and expensive to implement these

moves and changes (MACs), and almost every company struggles

to keep both directories up to date and in alignment.

2 Alcatel-Lucent Neopost, UK

When the ICT team at Neopost UK decided to automate and

streamline their ICT directory management processes, they

called in Alcatel-Lucent Professional Services. According to

Keir Brancoft, a project manager with Neopost, that was a great

move. He comments: “Continuing in a manual environment

would have been very expensive and far from ideal. Although it

is difficult to give exact figures, the Alcatel-Lucent solution has

undeniably allowed us to make substantial savings as there is up

to 50 per cent less maintenance and administration required.”

aDDress listings

One of the two directories that had to be kept up to date was

Microsoft Active Directory. This is a distributed directory

service that enables centralized, secure management of an entire

network across one or more sites. It is a central component of

the Windows platform, and provides the means to manage the

“The Alcatel-Lucent solution has

undeniably allowed us to make substantial

savings as there is up to 50 per cent less

maintenance and administration required.”

Keir Brancoft, project manager, Neopost UK

Case study • Telecommunications

identities and relationships that make up network environments.

So, for example, it manages password protocols, enables users

to log on and off, and permits staff to teamwork in discrete

groups. Obviously, it has a central role in maintaining a network’s

security.

The other directory that had to be better maintained was

essential to Neopost’s telephony infrastructure. It was one

of many powerful tools that comprise the Alcatel-Lucent

OmniVista™ 4760 Network Management System (NMS), which

resided on the company’s Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX™ Enterprise

communication server. The NMS directory’s principal purpose

is to route incoming and internal calls to the correct extension,

although it has other functionalities.

Of course, these IT and telephony directories are each absolutely

critical to the smooth running of any modern organization.

However, their updating to reflect new MACs is a burdensome

and time consuming task, and – in a busy ICT department,

where time is at a premium, and priorities constantly change –

it is rarely possible to keep them as current and as accurate as is

desirable. In particular, it is all too easy for a technician to update

a MAC in one directory, and then be distracted by an emergency

so that she forgets to post the amendment, addition or deletion

in the other.

This was the problem that Neopost was facing. Not only was

the actual process of updating the two directories onerous and

expensive, but there was a risk that the old and/or inaccurate

information they contained could impact on the group’s

efficiency.

Indeed, it could possibly even compromise security. For instance,

it is obviously important that a former employee’s ability to log

onto IT systems ceases as soon as he leaves the company.

Pushing the enveloPe

Alcatel-Lucent Professional Services proposed a solution that

would virtually halve the directory maintenance workload

while helping to improve efficiency and data integrity.

Its team set about building two modules. The first was a direct

Alcatel-Lucent Neopost, UK 3

challenge

To improve the accuracy and timely availability of

critical information on two key directories

To reduce the IT department’s administrative workload

To drive down directory maintenance costs

solutions & services

Unrivaled expertise from the Alcatel-Lucent

Professional Services team

Alcatel-Lucent OmniVista 4760 Network Management

System integrated with Microsoft Active Directory

Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise

communication server

benefits

Improved network security, performance and efﬁciency

Lower network management costs

Simpler, more trouble-free directory maintenance

Increased end user conﬁdence in system integrity

“Without this automatic provisioning,

a manual process may have left user

profiles in one directory that should have

otherwise been disabled.”

Keir Brancoft, project manager, Neopost UK

Case study • Telecommunications

4 Alcatel-Lucent Neopost, UK

www.alcatel-lucent.com

Alcatel, Lucent, Alcatel-Lucent, the Alcatel-Lucent logo are trademarks of Alcatel-Lucent. All other trademarks are the property of their respective

owners. Alcatel-Lucent assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of the information presented, which is subject to change without notice.

Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise configuration module,

which integrates into the Microsoft Active Directory (MSAD)

interface. This allows phone sets to be created and managed using

MSAD entries. The second was an LDAP (Lightweight Directory

Access Protocol) synchronization module, which synchronizes

the Alcatel-Lucent OmniVista 4760 network management

system directory fields (extension number, IP address, phone set

category, and so on) with those in the MSAD LDAP database.

Naturally, the Alcatel-Lucent Professional Services team had

an intimate knowledge of all the Alcatel-Lucent applications

and products with which they were working, along with

an unbeatable understanding of IP network technologies.

This expertise supported the team’s members for the integration

and synchronization tasks that they had to perform, and the

project proceeded smoothly.

Delivering real business benefits

Today, when Neopost’s ICT department has to implement

a MAC, it updates only the Microsoft directory. As soon

as that is done, the Alcatel-Lucent Professional Services

solution automatically and immediately synchronizes with the

other directory in the NMS. In this way, both directories are

permanently in alignment, and the time it takes to maintain

them is effectively halved.

This not only slashes costs, but also contributes to Neopost’s

overall efficiency and the security of its ICT infrastructure.

As Keir Brancoft observes: “Alcatel-Lucent’s solution has fulfilled

an immediate requirement for synchronizing the two directories.

Without this automatic provisioning, a manual process may have

left user profiles in one directory that should have otherwise

been disabled. By reflecting our organization’s most current

information, our employees can feel confident that they are

working with accurate and timely information at all times.”

He continues: “It would have taken twice the time to

synchronize attributes of our Microsoft Active Directory into the

Alcatel-Lucent OmniVista 4760, and then into the Alcatel-Lucent

OmniPCX Enterprise server. But now it’s instantaneous

throughout the working day. Everything is kept up to date.”

Alcatel-Lucent Professional Services

proposed a solution that would virtually

halve the directory maintenance

workload while helping to improve

efficiency and data integrity.

Alcatel neopost UK User manual

Alcatel neopost UK User manual

Alcatel neopost UK User manual

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